3,432 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore; 15 more deaths bring tally to 364

• There were 3,432 new Covid-19 cases on Oct 28
• Fifteen deaths were registered for the day, bringing the tally to 364
• There are 360 ICU beds, of which 262 are now occupied, including 136 by Covid-19 patients
• The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before stood at 1.13, down from the 1.15 reported the day before
• Singapore has registered a total of 187,851 cases since the start of the pandemic in 2020

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Thursday (Oct 28) logged 3,432 new cases of Covid-19 and 15 more deaths due to complications from the disease.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation here, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 75 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration, down from the 76 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 61 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs, five fewer than on Wednesday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support went down from 308 on Wednesday to 294 on Thursday.

In total, there are 360 ICU beds, of which 262 are now occupied — 136 by Covid-19 patients.

This means that the ICU utilisation rate is now 72.8 per cent, down from the 79.8 per cent the day before.

Among the new infections recorded on Thursday, 3,171 were in the community, 252 were made up of migrant worker dormitory residents and the remaining nine were imported.

The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before stood at 1.13, down from the 1.15 reported the day before.

On Thursday, there were 545 people above the age of 60 among the community cases, MOH said.

The 15 who died were all aged between 62 and 98.

“All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” the ministry said without giving more details.

In total, 364 people here have died of Covid-19 complications, including 263 this month alone.

Earlier in the evening, MOH said on Facebook that the day’s detection rate of daily cases “appears to be normal”.

“No unusually high numbers detected, so we will not likely see a high surge like (Wednesday).”

MOH stressed that the detection rate of daily cases remains a “relevant topline data to help us know where we are on the epidemic curve”.

“It will guide us on when we can relax measures and work on the next steps forward,” it said, adding that the bottomline of how many people become seriously ill or dying “remains even more important”.

“To save as many lives as we can, the healthcare system must be able to cope, and cannot be overwhelmed.”.

LOCAL SITUATION

Singapore has registered a total of 187,851 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

As of Thursday, there were 1,732 Covid-19 patients in hospitals, 45 fewer than the day before.

Among all Covid-19 community cases who have been onboarded or admitted:

• 20,202, or 73.6 per cent of them, were undergoing home recovery
• 4,581 (16.7 per cent) were in community care facilities
• 1,732 (6.3 per cent) were in hospital, mostly for observation
• 942 (3.4 per cent) were in Covid-19 treatment facilities

Separately, some 4,348 cases were discharged on Thursday, of whom 710 were people above the age of 60.

MOH said that over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who had mild or no symptoms was 98.7 per cent. During the same period:

• 0.9 per cent of patients required oxygen aid
• 0.1 per cent were unstable and under close monitoring under intensive care
• 0.1 per cent were critically ill and intubated in ICU
• 0.2 per cent had died

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among large clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, six had new cases, MOH said on Thursday. This was one fewer cluster compared to Wednesday.

A total of 14 new infections were added to these six large clusters.

MOH said that in the past seven days, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.5 and 4.3 per 100,000 population respectively.

Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died was 0.1 and 0.9 per 100,000 population respectively.

And among those aged 60 and above, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who were critically ill under intensive care was 2.1 and 34.0 respectively.

“The number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated seniors who died are 0.3 and 8.9 respectively,” it added.

VACCINATIONS

As of Oct 27, 84 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

MOH added that 14 per cent of the population have received their booster shots.

A total of​​ 10,049,015 doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme (Pfizer-BioNTech or Comirnaty, Moderna and Sinovac) have been administered.